Bartholomew Fair
Etcher Thomas Rowlandson British
After John Nixon British
Not on view
Rowlandson's leading cataloguer Joseph Grego, wrote of this print that, "judging from the caricature, the abolition of fairs in the City must have been a boon to public order and morality. The noise, disorder, and misrule of the festivity are taking place outside the hospital. Boat-swings are revolving, a few...getting into difficulties...there are wandering sellers of sweets, pastry, and such things,...booths for refreshments...drinking stalls where tipplers are taking too much...a reveller who, finding himself overcome with liquor, has laid down in the gutter...There are booths for dancing...and parties of jolly sailors arriving outside coaches....in more than one spot, rings are formed for fair fighting, and both men and women are exhibiting their prowess in the boxing line."
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